


Too Near the Sun, Too Far

by EHyde



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gigan (minor role), M/M, Ogi (minor role), Pre-Canon, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 09:43:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: It's dangerous to get too close when all you know how to do is run away.Jae-ha meets "Won" in Awa a few months before the start of the canon timeline. Two men with secrets, they hit it off right away--but when one desires a confidant, the other an escape, things can't end well.





	Too Near the Sun, Too Far

“When can I see you again?”

Seldom do those words cross Jaeha’s lips, yet he speaks them to Won without thinking. Jaeha has only known the younger man for three days—and it might be a stretch to say “known.” Won is obviously an assumed name, for starters. But Jaeha has his secrets too, and the air of mystery only adds to the excitement.

The first thing that caught Jaeha’s eye was the young man’s beauty, of course. But it’s his laughter that draws him in—laughter, and the hint it hides something more. Won is an outsider to Awa, yet he immediately sees the wrongness of the town for what it is. And Jaeha can’t shake the feeling that he’s going to  _fix_  it. That makes no sense at all; he doesn’t know what business brought Won to Awa, but he knows he isn’t going to stay.

“Hm, I don’t think I’ll be returning to Awa for a long time. Months, at least. We could write?”

 _Writing_  won’t be enough, and Jaeha hopes that Won knows it, too. “I’m not bound here, you know.”

“Oh? Well, if you ever come to Kuuto, look for an information broker called Ogi. He’ll know where I am!”

They spend the rest of that night looking out over the moonlit sea, pretending not to think about the future.

Jaeha could ask Gigan if she knows an information broker called Ogi, could ask her to seek out any information about “Won,” but he leaves that alone. They’ll choose to tell each other their secrets, or they won’t.

Barely a month later, the pirates have won a big victory against Kumji. The whole crew is celebrating, and Jaeha can think of only one person he wants to celebrate with. He tells Gigan he’ll be gone for a few days—not the first time he’s done this—and flies towards the capital.

Kuuto. It’s the one place in all of Kouka he’s avoided in all his years of freedom. Hiryuu Castle is there, even if Hiryuu is not, and he’d never wanted to get close. Now, he vaguely wonders why. It feels dangerous, exciting. But Kuuto itself is just another town, and Ogi’s back-alley shop familiar in its feel if not its specifics. “Can’t say I know anyone called Won,” Ogi tells him, of course.

“Well, if you meet anyone by that name, tell him Jaeha the pirate is in town.”

“Jaeha the pirate, huh?” Ogi rolls his eyes, but Won finds him not two hours later.

“You got here quickly,” Won greets him. “I just heard about last night’s victory at sea, Jaeha-the-pirate.”

Jaeha blinks, then sighs. “And here I was avoiding tracking down intel about you.” But he’d been open about calling himself a pirate from the start, and there are hardly any other pirate crews in Awa. Still… “News travels fast, it seems.”

“Though not as fast as some,” Won replies, a question on his face.

“Would you like to know my secret?” The question escapes him before he realizes what he’s saying. Jaeha has shown others his power, of course—Gigan’s whole crew knows of it, and they’re not the only ones. But he’s only known Won for a few days. Is he really so enamored by the younger man’s golden beauty? No, it’s not just that—or not just that. He can’t deny there’s a thrill in having a secret Won couldn’t uncover, but still, he feels like he can trust him. And after all, he already flew all this way for the man he keeps telling himself he barely knows. The connection is there.

Won smiles. He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t need to—he’s clearly a man intrigued by secrets. “Let’s go outside.” They step out into the deserted alley, where Jaeha takes Won into his arms and leaps into the evening sky.

“Ah!” Won’s shout is a cry of surprise, not fear—and it’s followed quickly by a breathless “ohhh.” Jaeha grins as he brings them down for a landing on an unknown rooftop. “You can fly!” Won exclaims.

“Well, it’s more like jumping…”

“What are you?” Jaeha braces himself. Is he really prepared to go this far? But Won doesn’t give him a chance to back out. “Are…are you the green dragon warrior, from the stories?”

Jaeha nods, and readies himself for what follows. It’s not what he expects. “How long,” Won asks carefully, “have the Four Dragons protected Kouka’s borders?” He looks up at Jaeha with eyes so intent, it feels like his entire world depends on the answer to this question.

“They don’t,” Jaeha says shortly. “I ran away from my destiny. If Hiryuu ever appears, I’ll run away from him, too.”

Letting out a breath, Won nearly laughs as relief floods his face. “Then—that’s amazing.” Jaeha doesn’t understand his reaction at all—but he understands what comes next. “Kiss me, Jaeha.” Happily, Jaeha obliges, and this kiss feels deeper, more real, than anything that has come before. “Should Hiryuu, or one who would serve Hiryuu, ever come for you, I will do all I can to stand between you and them,” Won says with fire in his eyes, and even Gigan has never taken his future so seriously.

 _What do you know?_  Jaeha almost asks—but he doesn’t want to know. He wants this just to be Won, and just to be him.

“I don’t know where I’m going,” he confesses instead. “I’ve never been to Kuuto before. I just picked a direction and jumped.”

Won takes his hand, lifts it, and points. “That way,” he says. This time, they land in an isolated garden. “I have a falcon,” Won says. “I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like, to fly like her. It’s better than I imagined.” Keeping a falcon is a rare thing, and again, Jaeha almost asks—but he won’t. “Do you really have a dragon’s leg? Can I see—?” Won breaks off as he sees the look on Jaeha’s face. “I’m sorry. I won’t ask again.”

This time, Jaeha is the one who asks for the kiss.

That night is the only night they fly. It’s as if Won wants to assure Jaeha he sees him only as another man—and Jaeha appreciates that. He’d learned on their first day together in Awa that Won had no interest in the brothels whose atmosphere Jaeha so enjoyed—instead they visit teahouses, bookshops, baths. Everywhere they go, they find people who know Won. “If I asked,” Jaeha says, “none of these fellows would know any more about you than I’ve learned in just a few days, would they?”

“Were you planning to ask?” He wasn’t, of course.

Gigan teases him mercilessly when he returns to Awa, but Jaeha wouldn’t have it any other way. “Just don’t let your latest lover spin your head around so far you forget we have work to do.”

“Come, Captain, you know that nothing so mundane as work can tie down the green dragon.”

“Uh-huh.” And of course she’s right, when the work in question means taking down the likes of Yang Kum-ji. It’s more than a month before Jaeha visits Kuuto again, and this time, Won isn’t there. Ogi hands him a letter, with directions to a manor outside a small town to the north.

Won greets him with tired eyes. “You came.”

“You know I wanted to see you again. Now, let’s cheer you up, hm?” But Won can’t, or won’t, shake his gloomy mood. “What’s going on?” Jaeha finally asks.

“A different life,” says Won. “One I never wanted to worry you with.” Whatever’s going on, Won won’t ask for help, and maybe that’s as things should be. “I’m returning to Kuuto tomorrow,” says Won, resting his head back against Jaeha’s chest. “Stay with me tonight?”

“I’ll carry you to Kuuto myself if you’d like.”

“No. Stay away from the capital for a while. Just listen to me, on this one thing.”

“Won, are you breaking up with me?” Jaeha teases, and tries to tease out an answer.

“I’ll see you again. I’ll return to Awa someday, I promise. But Kuuto, right now—you shouldn’t be involved.” He glances down at Jaeha’s right foot, the only time he’s done so. “You don’t want to get involved.”

Jaeha decides to take him at his word.

This time, he does ask Gigan if she’s ever traded intel with Ogi. She has, but it’s still a dead end, of course. Ogi won’t sell any intel on Won; Jaeha has gathered that much, at least. So he moves on (or as Gigan likes to call it, mopes) until two weeks later, when word comes to Awa that a new king is to be crowned in Hiryuu Castle.

 _Stay away from Kuuto for a while._  Won knew this was coming. Won, who had known enough about Hiryuu to oppose him with a personal anger. Had it happened, then? Had Hiryuu returned? If so, Won was right. He should stay far, far away. But Jaeha recalls how melancholy, how resigned, Won had been at their last parting, and he can’t just leave things this way.

(Besides. Hiryuu. He has to know what he’s up against.)

“Wonder if this new king will do anything for Awa?” Gigan says. The doubt is already clear in her voice, but Jaeha seizes the opening anyway.

“We should see for ourselves,” he says. “I’ll go back to Kuuto.”

He tells himself he’ll just go to Ogi’s place. Ogi will have what Jaeha needs, even if he has to work him a little harder to get it out of him. But as he soars toward the city, the warm morning sunlight catches on the red rooftops of Hiryuu Castle, and he wonders. It’s the dragon’s blood within him pulling him towards that place, isn’t it? Wherever the dragon’s blood pulled, he would fly in the opposite direction…was what he’d always said. Now that he’s close…well after all, no matter how close he gets, he can always fly away.

The castle grounds are filled with crowds and banners. Is this the coronation? Jaeha lands on a rooftop where he won’t be seen and waits.

He doesn’t recognize him at first. Dressed in golden finery, stiff and cold, this is about what Jaeha expected of a king. About what he expected of  _Hiryuu_ , but there is no new tug from his dragon’s blood, and for a moment he thinks he’s safe.  _He’s beautiful,_  Jaeha notes as the king steps closer and he can finally make out a face under all that finery, and then—

It’s Won.

Won is the king of Kouka.

Jaeha almost jumps down into the royal path to confront him then and there. At the last second, he remembers what he told himself. He can always fly away. And so he does.

 _Won never lied to him._  That’s what he tells himself, all throughout the day and the night that follows as he drowns himself in drink. The whole town is celebrating, and if no one looks too close, Jaeha blends right in. Won never lied to him, and Jaeha never asked. And he should leave, and forget everything he ever knew about Won— _which was nothing!_ —but still he remembers the tired look in his eyes, and he doesn’t want to lose him. Even if he is—no, no, he can’t think it.

He waits till the next morning, or tries to. He’s not quite so drunk that he can’t tell what a disaster confronting Won right now would be. But a night of restless sleep does nothing to clear his head. He stalks the castle from above in the cool, dark morning and has no trouble spotting Won as he walks across a dark courtyard alone. Is this the dragon’s blood he feels?

“Jaeha,” Won says, blinking up at him as he lands. “I told you to stay away.”

“You told me you’d stand between me and Hiryuu,” Jaeha counters. “What a sick joke that was.”

“I…I’m not Hiryuu.”

“The dragon warrior who ran away from his destiny is the king’s lover, and doesn’t even know it. Were you laughing?”

“A little,” Won admits. “But that’s not—”

“I  _felt_  something. I could never explain what drew me to you so. All along, was that—?”

Won looks down. “I thought that was us.”

“So did I.”

Silence stretches between them. “I’m not Hiryuu,” Won repeats. “The heavens have nothing to do with me, nor I with them.” But that’s not what this is really about, is it?

“You’re still the king in Hiryuu Castle.”

“Yes.” A pause. “If I told you I took the throne to keep Hiryuu far away from it, would that change anything?”

“Is that true?” Won doesn’t answer.

“…I’ll never be just ‘Won’ again to you, will I?”

Jaeha sighs. It’s his own fault. So many times, he could have asked questions, and so many times, he chose not to. Telling his deepest secrets to someone he knew would give him nothing back—what had he been thinking? “I’ll miss Won,” he says.

Won—no, King Suwon—smiles sadly up at him. “Won will miss you too.” For the briefest moment, Jaeha wonders—but no. He can believe what Suwon says about Hiryuu, but what they had is still gone. “I don’t suppose we could fly, one last time?”

Jaeha almost refuses, but why not? He scoops the king into his arms—his royal robes more of a mess than Won’s simple clothes ever were—and leaps up to the palace roof. “No one will ever tie you down,” Suwon says as they watch the red sun rise over the valley below.

Times like this almost make Jaeha wonder if that might not be such a good thing after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm [fallenwithstyle](http://fallenwithstyle.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you'd like to come say hi.


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